Quote from: K8 on October 25, 2009, 01:48:37 PM
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Those who see things as black and white – good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral – generally do not like to have those rigid boundaries questioned, because that calls their world-view into question. (They are inflexible, after all, or they would view the world as having shades of gray.) The black-and-white view is a simpler one and some will cling to it, perhaps because they don't have the inner resources to handle a broader, more diffuse view of things.
While I don't disagree with the point I think you're making, I don't quite align with the aspersion that finding something outside the perceived norm to be odd is necessarily a character flaw or failing of the individual (apologies if I'm reading an implied criticism of such folks that wasn't intended)
Let's say you wake up one morning at the sky is a nice lurid green. You're going to stare at it and metaphorically at least scratch your head and go "huh!?" because previous experience has taught you that the sky is blue. Are you lacking the resources to cope with something that falls outside the norm? Does finding the incongruous sky colour imply some character flaw?
No. It's a perfectly natural reaction to something you're not accustomed to.
It is, however, a character flaw to deal with it by s->-bleeped-<-ing and being cruel or insensitive - no argument there.
Sometimes people stare at my daughter because of her eye problems. Sometimes kids will say out loud what others are thinking. Both of these make my daughter and I uncomfortable but, as I explained to her, this is something she's going to have to get used to - she IS different, political correctness be damned. Now, if someone laughs or makes a sotto voce comment, I may approach them and ask them flat out if they'd like to know about glaucoma and the affects on the eye. This usually deflects the discomfort from us back to them
The cold hard reality is incongruity attracts attention and yup, that can be uncomfortable (hence the ubiquitous desire to pass convincingly) but too bad - life can be a vicious little cow sometimes and we all have to deal with it in our own way.
